I watched Spider-Man: Brand New Day over the weekend with my wife. I also saw Project Hail Mary this year, and I wish I had written a review for that film, but I was a bit too slow. This time I am trying to strike while the iron is hot and the Spidey is swinging!
Categories:
- Impact/Personal History (5): I really enjoyed the last of the MCU Spider-Man films. It was very impactful, especially considering I hold Toby Maguire as my favorite Spider-Man, and Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe play some of my favorite villains of all time in their respective films. That film felt respectful of my childhood favorites, and because of that, it also helped my feelings become very attached to the noble sacrifice made by Peter at the end of the last film. This film does not disregard that sacrifice, but I feel that it leaves it in a weird limbo space, and I am on the fence as to whether or not I think it would have been better to have this Peter leave Ned and MJ's lives forever as a way to protect them. The simple fact is that I did not feel like this movie utilized what was set up by the prior film in a particularly impactful way, and that failing risks tarnishing the impact of the prior film... which is a film I enjoyed more.
- Presentation (9): This gets a 9 for the action and Spidey suit alone. Oh my goodness... it is glorious. This is probably the best action I have seen in a (live-action) Spider-Man film. The camera is also bold and somewhat playful, and the acting (especially from Tom Holland) is exceptional. The CGI looked good. I will say it would probably be a 10/10, but I felt like the lighting was a bit muted and dull, and the score was serviceable, though I do not remember it particularly well. The action might be the best part of this whole film, so if you want Spidey action, this will be a great watch. I will say that, in particular, he has one fight with some armed guards that shocked me by how fun and cool it was. It really displayed his athleticism and the cool tricks that could be done by pulling and twisting himself using the web-lines. It could have easily been a mundane fight, but it struck me as being really high effort and striking! Really, really great stuff. Also, Tom Holland deserves so much praise for both his performance and the insane work he must have put into his physique.
- World-Building (5): I... am not sure how I feel about this film as an introduction of the X-men into the MCU. I will also say that this film suffered from the cast bloat of the MCU. I thought the use of the new Black Widow slowed the pace and felt rather... lame. The film would have been better without her inclusion. I did not particularly think the Punisher meshed well in a PG-13 Spidey film, and as such he felt like an odd choice to include (especially considering he forms a part of an important thematic lesson for Peter). The use of the Hulk was fun, and I would say good. His transformation was satisfactorily freaky. The inhibitor device used scientific techno-babble at points, but honestly a lot of it was loosely based on real biology, so that made me smile (haha, I have used my fair share of siRNA to prevent the generation of gene products, so using it to suppress the spider hormones was a neat idea). I did not care for Peter's problem-solving, exposition-giving AI assistant. I will also say that the development of Spidey's more monstrous spider abilities felt like a struggle with a rather cheap payoff at the end. This was disappointing on both a mechanical and thematic level. Finally... any MCU film struggles with world-building at this point due to the expansive cast of characters and world mechanics that will inevitably *not* show up and *not* be implemented because it is not their movie.
- Aesthetic (8): I don't think anything in this film looked out of place, and I generally enjoyed all the designs of characters/outfits/environments. I will mention the dull lighting again as I did not care for that, but aside from that I think the film looks great.
- Protagonists (9): Spidey feels like he has really graduated from being a boy into being a man. There is no one to bail him out, and the weight of the world is very heavy on him. I LOVED getting to see him heroically rescuing people. I really liked him grabbing the kid. I think him taking the bullet for Jean was a fitting display of selflessness. I also liked seeing Peter take accountability on multiple accounts; he immediately showed concern and distress after injuring the officer, and he apologized to MJ for kissing her when she was possessed. He was wronged by Jean in that interaction, but he still goes out of his way to try and make things right. I felt that that was refreshing after having watched and cringed many times at heroes in stories that include possession or mind control or body swapping not taking the sexual wellbeing of someone else into account before acting (ugh. Wonder Woman 1984, Chainsaw Man Part 2, even Arcane S2... all of them play around with these mechanics and basically step into the territory of sexual abuse/violence without ever really treating it seriously). Now, while I liked Peter a ton in this film, I do think there are two problems with the protagonists. One... is that I do not particularly enjoy the inclusion or implementation of the Punisher. On the part of Peter, I feel like this MCU Peter consistently has agency robbed from him for the sake of other characters. Peter has never intentionally revealed his alter ego, and he does not get that choice in this film. MJ discovers it yet again. I wish I could know whether or not Peter would fully commit to anonymity to keep her safe (speaking of, I like that he remains masked through almost the entire film) or if he would let her into the greatest secret of his life. As of now, we will never know what this Peter would do, and that is unfortunate and unnecessary. To get back to positives, I really did appreciate how beaten up Peter gets in order to save a scummy Damage Control director and to save Jean's soul. Again, he feels really heroic, and I love to see that in a hero-movie.
- Antagonists (5): Hmmmmmm. This is an unfortunate category. The director of Damage Control felt like he was obviously suspicious from the get-go. It was a very typical super-hero plot, and unfortunately, the whole "shady government agency committing great acts of evil" did not feel fresh or interesting at all. However, Jean was a much bigger disappointment. On the one hand, the utilization of her abilities was really creepy and interesting (though perhaps she could have solved her problems much more easily with a little more tact and a little less tanks). The problem with Jean is that she is very very much a villain. Her actions are deeply evil. She sexually assaults both Peter and MJ via her possession of the latter. That scene buuuuuuuugs me the more I think about it. She also walks a completely innocent guy right into traffic. That dude is DEAD. And he is dead for no reason beyond Jean wanting to be intimidating. These two evil acts are the ones I know she did, but it also seems likely that she is responsible for hundreds of injuries/deaths via her initial tank attack and her possession of a square kilometer of NY city... Heck, it seems like she even just totally ruins the life of Bruce Banner! We get no resolution for him. This would all be fine, good writing even, if Jean was not eventually let of the hook for all of this. She falls into the rather irritating trend of Marvel characters who are therapized out of their evil mindset while also paying nothing for their horrific actions. Accountability is something we see Peter take again and again, but we don't see a drop of remorse from Jean. She is following right in the footsteps of Wanda from WandaVision and Karli Morgenthau from Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Just because horrible things have happened to a character does not mean that their own evil and violent acts do not need to be addressed and atoned for. This film would be much better if Jean turned herself in, but in the end she winds up off on her own AGAIN. The hope of her salvation was not being alone. It was companionship she was able to find in Peter, but this fix to her problem is immediately undone by her fleeing the scene at the end of the film. I really dislike the way this film handles Jean in the end. It does not feel like she has earned forgiveness, and I really dislike trauma being used as a shield to hide evil actions behind. My favorite stories grapple heavily with the cost of evil born from trauma, and how even that evil must be atoned for (see FMAB and Demon Slayer). I do not feel like Jean was irredeemable, but that just makes her lack of redemption in the end all the more frustrating.
- Themes/Depth (6): This movie aims at a lot of themes, but I am not sure how well it actually landed any of these themes. There are two I noticed:
- 1: Self-acceptance even with scary changes: This theme is definitely accentuated by the use of the Hulk and Jean. It is the theme that, however clunkily, is used to stop Jean Grey from her spiral into villainy (however, I felt the memory of Aunt May was rather contrived to fit Jean... something that took me out of that payoff and made it much less gripping). However, I feel like Peter has his own problem in this area resolved in a strikingly costless way. I feel like his power-up should have a cost. Make him still have to control his aggression and deal with the over-stimulation. If he is to accept himself fully, that should not just erase the harder elements that had initially frightened him. Self-acceptance does not remove our own struggles, but it can motivate us to overcome them. This resolution of Peter's struggle felt like it hurt the theme AND hurt the world-building. Not a huge fan of "oh, I just feel like I accept myself and now I get triple strength with all the debuffs removed".
- 2: Not carrying the world alone. This was good, but not great. Peter is alone. He chose to be alone at the end of the last film. He slowly starts to make connections again in this film. The head detective and the Punisher are both people he more openly brings into his circle. The question also hangs in the air for the entire movie as to whether or not Peter will let MJ and Ned back in, but he is robbed of his chance to make that choice with MJ, and I am not sure what to make of the ending with Ned and the secret handshake. The fact that I did not feel much attachment to the Punisher and that Ned and MJ are in a weird limbo caused this film to never have a big pay-off moment for this theme.
- Uplifting (8): I loved when Peter saved the kid, asked him if he was okay, saw the look of awe and joy on his face, and was happy to acknowledge that the kid was fine. That was great. The issues with Jean that I have mentioned prior somewhat dampen the ability of this film to be uplifting. The interactions Peter has with his old friends were charming (though if I were to give ANY film advice, I would suggest not quoting LotR. That just makes the audience think of LotR. This inevitably causes said audience to compare the current film with LotR... and this will always result in a more negative opinion of the current film). I also liked the end scene where NY was hoping and cheering for Spidey to recover.
- Tension (7): Surprisingly, the scene where Jean causes MJ to jump off the building and the scenes with Punisher preparing to take the shot and the moment where Peter is bleeding out all felt genuinely tense. However... I suppose it is no surprise that there was no real cost.
- Pacing/Length (7): The film is a bit long. I did not feel bored during it, but I did feel like Jean getting captured and Peter taking some time to realize the Damage Control guys are evil made things feel a bit longer.
- Emotional Resonance (5): As mentioned... lots of issues with the writing hurt the themes and the payoffs. Because of this I did not feel the triumphs or the lows that I expected to feel. The single scene in Spider-Man 2 where May tries to give Peter a $20 bill hit my feelings ten times harder than anything in this film, and that is a real shame. It is also a testament to how many small compounding writing misses can damage my ability to engage emotionally with a story. I do not think writing is easy, but it is critically important.
- Destination Clarity (8): The story starts with Peter carrying the world alone. Through the story, he learns to work with and trust others. He even begins to reconnect with Ned at the end. These are things I somewhat expected and hoped for. Having your main villain defeated via therapy... is a frustratingly predictable end for a current-day MCU film as well. While I think the film was clear in its destination, I also think it was unfortunately unremarkable in its twists and turns.
- Consistency (9): The film is good but not great throughout. I think there were very few dips or peaks in the narrative. The action stayed good throughout. Tom was excellent throughout. The writing was good enough but missed the mark equally consistently. The tone was, thankfully, quite stable and fitting throughout. I also did not feel like the humor was as irritating as many other MCU outings.
Quality Notes:
I have only seen this film once. I do think it was a good film. However, it felt very typical. Typical is not bad, but it is also not enough to get me to rate something overtly high. I am, thankfully, not starved for heroic heroes. I can see how people who are would really adore getting that in theaters again, so mileage may vary! The action was insanely hype. For that alone, I would recommend seeing this film in theaters. The writing in this film feels like many near misses that were aimed at good targets. This is much better than many recent stories I have watched/read that instead aim for very wrong-headed targets.
So, yeah, I *would* recommend watching this film! But I do not think it is the strongest outing for our friendly neighborhood web-head.
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